1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an Input/Output (I/O) connector in electronic systems, and more particularly to a microwave connector for I/O in portable electronic systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
The number of I/O port connectors on portable electronic systems (e.g. laptop computers) keeps increasing and new methods and techniques are required to minimize the number of connectors. For example, a new wireless (e.g., radio communications) technology is being added to portable systems that has a plurality of different frequency bands for a plurality of different applications.
In the near term (e.g., over the next 5-10 years), this technology will evolve and become more widespread. However, a problem will arise in that such technology will lead to physical changes in laptops, thereby creating huge legacy support problems. For example, these problems will include how to insert a radio at a frequency that has yet to be determined, how to have a good antenna external to the system providing optimum performance, how to ensure that the antenna is replaceable in cases where it is broken, and how to manage changes in frequency band.
A further problem with connectors, and particularly, microwave connectors called SMA (an industry standard acronym) connectors used for microwave systems, is that they are made of solid metal (e.g., gold-plated or stainless steel), have highly precise instrumentation, and are designed to carry frequencies from DC to about 18 GHz. As a result, such connectors have high costs typically in a range of $2 to $30 each. This high cost drives up the cost of the systems associated with such connectors.
Additionally, it is noted that device connectors for CB radios and commercial components for televisions have a frequency of up to 800-900 MHz and such devices have not operated in the microwave regime and as such TNC, BNC and F-type connectors associated with this band are also very expensive and/or not practical technically to operate much above 1 GHz.
Further, currently wireless local area network (LANs) systems are becoming popular which use a frequency band around 2.4 GHz, but there are currently no connectors used therewith having a low cost.
Finally, antenna systems are being studied for generic interfacing with a portable devices such as laptops and personal data assistants (PDAs). However, these devices have limited surface area and thus limited I/O ports ("spigots") for interfacing with an antenna. Thus, a problem has been how to connect such antenna systems to a laptop computer so as to provide wireless connectivity for the laptop which has low cost without adding additional connectors.